#the jungle is jumpin | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

toontails · 2 years ago

Text

Toon Quest

Chapter 8: He's Royalty!?

The sound of the voice speaking was muffled in the background, clearly someone was speaking..but to Y/n’s ears, it was was blocked out entirely, she held a thin flexible stick in her grasps, she was crouching behind the tall green grass, she held her breath as she edged forward, the leaves and sticks crackling under the soles of her shoes, the sound of birds chirping echoed in the hot humid air, the jungle like environment with all the creatures hiding in it was the only thing that Y/n focused on.

The dark puddle that formed behind her went unnoticed to the human as she had her back facing towards it, she leaned against the tree as she heard something moving on the other side of it, she smiled as she slowly peeked from behind it.

A head slowly popped out from inside the ink like puddle. Two eyes opened up and focused on Y/n, Bendy slowly crawled out of the puddle and slowly stood up and picked up a willow branch in the process, he slowly edged towards Y/n in a silent manner—she couldn’t hear a thing.

Soon, a figure jumped up and tackled Bendy, he fell to the ground with a ‘oof!’ And looked up to see Cuphead.

“Gotcha!” Cuphead shouts and Bendy shoves the cup off him and stands ups.

“Dammit, how come you get to just appear wherever you want!” Y/n complained as she walked over.

Panchito laughed as he stumbled from the bush he was hiding in. “¡Esto es muy gracioso!” He states before walking over.

“Well, I woulda had you if Cuphead learned ta’ stop jumpin’ on people.” Bendy fixed his shirt and dusted off the leaves and Cuphead laughed and fixed his straw in his head.

“See? I told you we can bond.” Cuphead placed a hand on Bendy’s shoulder and Bendy shook his hand off him. “Don’t touch me.” Bendy quickly says.

Y/n felt the stinging pain on her shoulder and she immediately jumps and turns around to see Ruck holding a willow branch in his hand, which he had dropped when she looked at him in confusion.

“Pay attention, nut head.” Ruck scolds. Meek and Don were a few feet away walking down the path, Y/n almost forgot Ruck was telling them various vegetation around the land, what was poisonous, what wasn’t, what could kill you, what could leave you deaf or missing a finger—stuff she should have been listening too.

“Sorry.” Y/n immediately apologized and Ruck slowly shook his head before turning around and motioning for everyone to follow him.

“Come on, you knuckle heads are already a pain in my back, Felix is the only one I can tolerate.” Ruck complained as he walked past Felix who was holding something behind his back, when Ruck was far enough Felix quickly tossed a stick to his side and Y/n let out a laugh as Felix smiled motioning her to keep quiet.

“Alright, alright. Come on, enough playing guys.” Felix says as he motioned everyone to follow Ruck, Cuphead groans before trudging his feet forward and follows after as well as everyone else.

“So, your uncle, huh?” Bendy questioned as he moved to walk next to Y/n. Y/n watched Ruck’s back as he walked down the trail and Y/n slowly nodded.

“In a way.” She answered.

“Well he sure does have a thing for authority.” Bendy grumbled—like a child that was scolded for talking in class.

“Yeah, at first I thought he was some drill sergeant or something. But I’m sure he means well.”

“So. Tell me about these guys.” Ruck pipes up, grabbing their attention.

Meek stops in his tracks before turning around and walking backwards.

“Oh yeah! I wanna hear about these villains, ya know, they’re always the dogs.” Meek smiled and Cuphead grumbled.

“They’re terrible.” Was his simple answer but Mugman seemed to shiver at the thought of the guys that were..now after them as well. Jeez, if the Devil gets anywhere near them, Mugman was for sure dead.

“They’re a bunch of goons that chase, but the real threat is the Angel, and whoever those other two were.” Oswald pipes up. Y/n grimaced for a moment at the mention of the three—her mind specifically moving towards Pib, a feeling in her stomach churned and she furrowed her eyebrows.

“Yeah..” she muttered.

“An Angel?” Ruck asks as he looks over his shoulder slightly—his demeanor changed for a moment in confusion and a light surprisement.

“Yes, his name is Abel, and if it weren’t for a gem that we have—I’m certain he would have had us by now.” Felix explained. Y/n was curious who Abel was—it seemed for toons, he wasn’t anything to be reckoned with, and she thought the Devil was something they would shiver in terror for, but for Abel, it were as if someone was speaking of a boogeyman to a group of kids.

“What exactly is Abel?” Y/n asks.

“He’s an archangel, not a literal one, but one with remarkable powers that can kill a toon with no problem. He’s..an odd thing if you ask me as archangels aren’t entirely…frequent to say the least.”

Well that was something new.

“Well, in the book it did explain something about an Angel—I think it was referring to Abel.” Mugman brings up and Donald tilts his head.

“Great, does it tell us how to kill him?”

Mugman was silent for a moment as he rubbed the back of his neck. “N..no.”

Donald deadpans before looking away. “Then it’s not useful for us.”

“This Abel guy is something you all should take seriously then.” Ruck sternly voiced.

“You mess up one time, you all will be done for, and trust that would be a big disappointment dying before understanding what that book is trying to tell you.” Meek laughs at Ruck’s statement.

“Like Hector.” He cackled and Ruck looked at Meek who then immediately stopped laughing.

“It’s already bad you have one human who can’t even tie a knot the right way.” Ruck brings up Y/n, who earlier was tying a knot with a rope Ruck handed her and..let’s just say Y/n was a lot worse at doing simple things than she thought.

“So who’s the other two?” Don asks.

“Their names are Slicer and Pib.” Mugman uttered and Cuphead perked up gently.

“Yeah, the weirdo Pib, she’s nice one minute and then out to snap someone’s neck the next.” He complained and Y/n furrowed her eyebrows.

“Whatever and whoever they are, all three of them are dangerous and should be avoided, you guys did good with Bettigan and the others, but I..actually think it would be best to steer clear from Abel and the other two.” Felix acknowledged that fighting those three head on would result in…results he didn’t want to face and didn’t want the others to as well. Ruck seemed to have the right idea with At Least teaching the others to defend themselves to an extent, but as of now? There was no way they could go against those three or any other scenario in the future, which was good to have Ruck, he was certain the former explorer was going to teach everyone some valuable lessons even if they were hard, they couldn’t do much than adapt if they even wanted to remotely survive.

“Oh trust, I’m not going anywhere near Pib.” Y/n grumbled.

“Don’t worry, you’ll kill this Pib person..” Ruck muttered under his breath.

“As of now, listen to Felix. Those three have the power of a god..”

“I say we just go find them, I’m sure they didn’t flee off too far.” Slicer voiced as she followed the man in the trenchcoat who had walked into the room, the thorn in his side known as Slicer nagging away about finding the group of toons alongside with the human.

“You three did fantastic last night.” Slicer looks over to see Susie sitting on the couch in the room, a smile edged onto her face and Slicer slowly places her hands to her side.

“I ain’t nevah seen that kid get put through the wringer, but Pib did the due!” Susie laughs as she stands up from the couch and pats Pib on the back. Pib remained still before looking at Susie.

“That doesn't matter, those buffoons have that shielded stone!” The Devil shouts In disbelief before he points at Abel.

“Even he can’t attack them when they have it!”

“Hey, hey, take a chill pill.” Susie calms the Devil down—which was odd as she seemed to be the one that was always in a bad mood.

“When they come back, they won’t have that stone.” Susie brings up which causes Slicer to look back at her.

“They’ll be leaving to the offlands, couple a’ bears will do the trick, next thing you know they’ll be coming back empty handed.” Susie shows her hands which were empty.

“Jesus, if I knew we have inside eyes, I wouldn’t have tried to drown Mango in the water last night for him to go after them.” Bettigan cried out and Mango deadpans from in the background.

“These three, got the power of a god, we don’t gotta worry too much.” Susie places a hand on Pib’s chest and smiles. “And she couldn’t get a hand on them, you saw how the kid laid there, she was gonna cry.” Susie laughs before pulling away from Pib and walking back over to the couch.

“Pib is not a toy.” Abel pipes up. Pib looks over to him and Susie lets out a small laugh before nodding.

“Alright..you need to send a message. Down by the docks.” Susie brings up and Slicer grunts.

“To say?”

“When they reach the island, destroy that stone. You might gotta knock some sense into the guy, he’s stubborn, but I’m pretty sure you’ll do just fine.” Susie gave them a new quest.

“Devil needs the guy to sign a contract too, he owes, reason why you’re going to him instead of some other person.” She adds and Slicer was silent before nodding.

“Alright..”

Abel, Slicer and Pib stood next to each other as they stared at the boat docks, many people looking for boats, docking and even fishing, a man was seated on the edge of the docked boat, holding a cigarette in his hands.

“You know I’ve never seen a boat dock before.” Slicer curiously looks over the edge of the dock and into the water.

“Not the best of places I would spend my time.” Abel responds as his sharp gaze lands back on the man.

“I wanna speak to him.” Slicer gently nudged Abel’s arm as she started down the dock and over to the boat, where a woman had soon walked out.

“Gene, come on, breakfast is ready.” The woman announced, two children had been sitting on the floor of the boat—arguing stubbornly, the woman looked over to see Slicer, who stopped near the entrance of the boat, near the ramp. Abel and Pib slowly walked over as well.

“Oh..hello.” The woman greets and Slicer nods her head in greeting.

“We’re looking for Gene?” Slicer asks and the man looks at her and raises an eyebrow.

“That’s me.” He answered as Slice pulled a sack from her pocket—money. “We have a job offer, a delivery.”

“What is it?” Gene asks and the woman motioned to the door. “Please, come in.” She calls out before walking in, Gene stands up before motioning his head towards the door before walking in as well, the mother called for the children to come eat, and the two children stood up and scampered in as well, Slicer was about to follow after but Abel placed a hand in front of her as he stared at the boat.

“Intrare prudenter.” He spoke and Slicer was still for a tad bit before she nodded. “Noted.” She understood before he slowly removed his hand away from her and Slicer walked up to the boat with Abel and Pib following after.

The three walked into the boat, it creaked under their weight, once walking into the room—where they could see a kitchen table with food set down, the mother was sitting down at the table with the two children, who were busy now focused on the new guests.

“Who sent you?” Gene immediately asks. Though his question sounded more harsh than what he was trying to put out.

“Big horns, you know, he said you owe him a contract.” Slicer looks over at Abel who removed hand from behind him to reveal the rolled up contract in hand, Gene’s expression hardened.

“I ain’t signing that.” He refused, Slicer took the contract in her hand and looked at Gene.

“I don’t know much about contracts, but he said you owed him—“

“I ain’t signing that damn thing!” Gene repeats in a more harsh tone. The mother placed her hand on her children's head.

“Here, go play.” She tells them, the children hesitated before slowly slipping from the chair and scurrying over to the door, but Pib moved both their arms out and caught the two children running off. With no harm, she gently turns them around and guides them back over to the table with a hand on either of the kids shoulders.

There was silence in the room before Slicer started to speak again.

“Our offer—“ she starts but Gene starts talking again, interrupting Slicer.

“I’m not doing anything for you freaks..tell him I said our deal is off, I don’t give a damn if you try to kill me!” He shouts and the woman lets out a shaky sigh before she quickly grabs her children and pushes them behind her back.

Slicer gently tilts her head as she tries to think of something. But the man quickly stands up from the seat and pulls something from out of his pocket, a pistol and points it at the three, but they didn’t flinch, nor shy away from the sight, instead, Pib quickly raises a hand towards the man, which lifts him from the ground and pressed him against the wall, which ultimately made him release the gun, the woman gasps and the children did as well.

“Papa!”

“Father!” The children cried out in unison.

The man lets out a strained noise for oxygen, the yellow glow from Pib’s hand glows dimly.

Pib moves her other hand and one of the children moved away from the mother as if they were shoved away, they were picked up from the ground as well, they let out a shout as Pib’s fingers slowly curled in, in a motion to slowly make a fist, the child kicked their leg frantically and Slicer looks at Abel as she then hands him the contract, which he delicately takes it before slowly walking over to the man.

“Release, please.” Abel tells Pib, in which they released the man, he was slowly set onto the ground, his back glued to the wall as Abel walked over to him so close he felt the angel's hair touch his forehead. A sense of fear waved over Gene as Abel’s stoic yet harden gaze was casted down on him, a sharp look that could cut through anything

“My love for the human world is that but a grain of salt..” Abel’s voice was low for the two to hear, the man silently stared up at Abel in fear yet anger, has stern and empty Abel’s word felt—a clear sign of threatening—yet his facial expression remained neutral, eyes fixed dead set in the man’s.

“If not you, I will take your child.”

The man looks over to see the child still struggling in the air—with the heart of Pib letting the child breathe.

“You will deliver this message, and you will sign the contract…or I will kill everyone in this room. That. I can promise.” Was all Abel said, he slowly handed the contract to the man, the rolled up contract being held between his index and middle finger, the man shakily took it, beads of sweat dripping from his head as Abel backs away from him, the man walks over to the table and silently sat down, Pib places the child onto the ground who immediately ran over to the mother who was in tears.

The man picks up a pen laying on the table before signing the contract. Slicer places the bag of money onto the table.

“Here’s the message.” Slicer placed a small paper onto the table and takes the signed contract away from the man, the door opens up without anyone touching it and Slicer nodded her head in a bid of farewell.

“We’re gone!” She smiled behind the mask before quickly leaving the boat, Abel followed after without another word and Pib looked over at the children at the mother. Who flinched when she looked at him. Pib raised a fist to their chest and moved her fist in a circular motion before turning around and leaving.

Returning to the docks, Slicer walked down the wooden platform with a pep in her step, Abel and Pib walking alongside her. “This is why I do the talking..” Abel states, Slicer shrugged her shoulders and a chuckle emitted from her. “See that’s the thing about you Abel, I’m just trying to get to the point without scaring the humans—which you have the tendency to do might I remind you.”

Abel slowly stopped walking before he turned to look at the two, Slicer and Pib slowly stopped in their steps as they stood before Abel. “I vouch for you two to be responsible to not make a mess, to not scare off the people.” When Abel started to speak—Slicer’s shoulders sank and she tossed her head back as if being scolded by a mother, but Abel still continued to speak;

“They can and will take us away. And there is nothing I can do if they succeed in doing that. That is something I don’t want for us. Not now, not ever.”

“Well—how’s about we just blame it on Pib, she went rabid tryna chase that girl around.” Slicer’s statement was meant to be a joke, Pib adjusted to turn their head to Slicer before looking back at Abel who was looking at Pib.

Slicer slowly took off her mask and ran a hand through her hair and sighed, fiddling with the mask in the palms of her hands in anticipation. “I was just joking Pib..” Slicer’s gaze then flickered to Abel.

“Besides, the guy needed to be roughed up anyway, glad you stepped in to talk to him, I would’ve killed the guy.” Slicer tried to rid the sudden tension away with a short joke but Abel only shook his head and Slicer rolled her eyes at his action.

“Oh please, you bit my head off because of a minor inconvenience with the family and suddenly I’m the bad guy?” Slicer moves and walks past Abel, the Angel turns around to watch as Slicer starts to walk off down the dock and back over to the grass.

“Says the Angel who despises humans.”

“Carley..” Abel calls out but Slicer turns and points her pointed expression to Abel. “When I get my hands on the Butcher gang, I’m personally going to strangle all three of them, and you aren’t going to be there to stop me.” Slicer turns to walk away—leaving her last statement to the two. “I’ll be back at home,”

When she disappeared off around the corner, Abel slowly shook his head before turning his gaze to Pib. “Come, let us go back home. You need rest..” He ushered Pib before turning and walking off, Pib following after in his footsteps.

Y/n stared up at the tall trees, stretching and reaching towards the sky, the leaves were various colors, like pink, green, purple, red!

They reminded her of those cherry blossom trees, but they were so much more vibrant, the leaves blew and danced in the winds in all its glory, the sun rays peeked through the cracks of the leaves, it looked like stained glass. A leaf gracefully flew down, swaying back and forth as it landed on Y/n’s forehead, she smiled before gently taking the leaf and examining it, the color changed from red to a baby blue, she whispered in awe and placed the leaf into her pocket.

Spunk rolled around in the pile of colorful leaves, making happy grunting sounds as he stretched his small body.

“This place is called; Happy Isle.” Felix informs as he carefully picks up a leaf from the ground and examines it. “They get their pigmentation from not only the sun, but from the earth's energy.” He placed the leaf on Panchito’s arm and it turned a bright purple. He worked up a smile before taking the leaf and examining it.

“They take in the emotions from the earth, and change its colors depending on who it is.” Felix adds on and Y/n perks up.

“So, this is everyone’s emotions on earth right now?” She asks and Felix smiles before nodding, Y/n looks up at the trees again—millions of leaves, some changing colors and some remaining the same, some having neutral colors and some a bright color. Yet it all blended it together.

Y/n picks up another leaf before spotting Oswald curiously looking up at the trees, she placed the leaf on his arm, which caused him to look away from the tree and to the human, the leave turned green—not that she knew what that meant, she removed the leaf and bent down and placed it on Spunk, which it immediately turned yellow. Spunk barks and Y/n smiled before pulling away.

“Ay! Get a load of this!” Meek calls out, Y/n looks over to see Cuphead holding a leaf which was sporadically changing colors that Y/n couldn’t even name them off.

“I guess you truly are weird.” Bendy points out as Cuphead drops the leaf. “That one must be broken or somethin.” He grumbled.

“These trees are awesome, I never seen anything like this before.” Y/n calls out and Ruck nods before walking over and standing next to a tree.

“And you guys are gonna climb em.” Ruck calls out, points up at the top of the tree.

“Up there you’ll get a glimpse of miles of nature, we can camp out here for the night before continuing on.” He says.

“He’s kiddin’ right?” Donald squinted and Y/n was silent for a moment. It was getting dark, the sun was starting to set.

“First thing out here is, you need to be able to climb, bears might be chasin’ you and you’ll never know.” Ruck chuckled.

“In a world with magical creatures and clearly bears still exist out here.” Bendy grumbled before standing next to Y/n and she slowly shrugged.

“Just hope we don’t run into one, I heard you can’t outrun bears.”

“I love climbing trees, used to do it all the time back in Inkwell, can we camp in the trees tonight?” Cuphead asks Felix who then nods.

“Yeah, these trees can hold a lot—make a hammock and it’ll be fine.”

That did strike Y/n’s interest and she shuffled on her feet. “Oh I wanna hammock!” She calls out which Ruck noticed that seemed to be the kicker, he glanced at Y/n and then at the tree.

“You climb up that tree, you get your own hammock for the night kid. I’ll even throw in some sweets for you that I packed before we left.” Ruck offered, Y/n looked over at the tree, it was tall and..intimidating to say the least. There was no way she could physically climb up that thing.

“What if I don’t make it?” She asks.

“Then you’ll be sleepin’ down here.” He finished it off. Y/n deadpans and inwardly groans.

“Fine..” she grumbled and Hector nodded.

“We’ll go find some firewood!” Meek calls out as he and Don wandered off to find the wood.

“It’s not that hard, me and Cuphead’ll show you.” Mugman slowly eased by Y/n before grabbing her arm and walking over to the tree.

Cuphead takes hold of a branch before lifting himself up, once doing so he looked up the second branch was too far, which he placed his hands onto the branch and lifted himself up before placing his feet onto it as well and..stood up…

He walks up to the branch—sideways on the tree and grabs onto it.

“I can’t do that—how can you even do that?” She asks, appalled. Mugman gives her a confused expression before he opens his mouth in realization.

“Oh! Right..haha..sorry..” he says nervously. Toon logic. Something Y/n didn’t have.

“You guys can climb walls?” She asks. “Well—not for too long, not more than maybe..I’d say..10 seconds? Cuphead tried climbing a house one time and thought he could just walk in until he reached the top..he broke his handle that day.”

Y/n stared at Mugman for a moment before slowly furrowing her eyebrows.

“Which! Doesn't make us any different! We still have to climb too!” Mugman quickly stammers as he places his hands onto Y/n’s shoulders.

“It’ll just take you more time, which isn’t a bad thing.” He gave her a big nervous smile and Y/n slowly nodded.

“I can do it.” Y/n states before Mugman released her, she placed her hands on the branch and heaved herself up, once on the branch, she looked up at the second branch to see Cuphead looking down at her, Y/n examined the branch at first before jumping up, her hands grasping onto it and she tried to pull herself up, but failed and fell off of the branch and landed onto the ground with a loud thud.

Panchito had wandered over and helped Y/n off of the ground. “Maybe let us try to help you.” Panchito brings up, but Ruck interferes.

“She can do it.” He says and Panchito releases her and Y/n moves to look up at the tree, Cuphead jumps down from the branch and lands next to Y/n and Ruck motions the toons over to him, which they walked over, Bendy slowly leaving Y/n’s side as they stood in front of Ruck, Y/n was busy still scoping the tree out.

“You all are her eyes and ears, as she is human, she has to learn to be on her own to defend, but you can show her, in this world, she is nothing but a baby learning, as you guys are too, but you have a much more advantage at things than she does.” Ruck starts.

“Move her, through voice. Actions. Not touch.” He finished. They were silent for a moment as they walked back over to the tree, Cuphead looked at Felix.

“Are we really gonna listen to him?” He grumbled.

“He’s helping her, Cuphead.” Felix states and Oswald looks at Y/n who was busy hanging from a tree.

“Well he is her uncle.” He stated.

“Great.” Bendy corrects and Oswald nods in agreement.

“Then, we will show her. Come on!” Panchito calls out before wandering over to the tree and grabbing onto the branch to climb onto it.

Y/n had rubbed her face—the debri from the bark broke up from her gripping and landed into her eyes. She let out a frustrated huff before moving away from her spot and turning back to the tree to see her friends climbing it.

“Come on!” Oswald calls out to her, Y/n looked to see Bendy on the tree, a few branches above, he looks away from her before he continued climbing, Donald had shouted at Cuphead when he shook the branch he was on, some leaves falling from the branch as he did so, Felix was busy waiting for Mugman who had climbed onto the branch he was on and Panchito laughed when Bendy almost fell off the branch but continued to climb.

“Hurry! I want to see the sunset!” Panchito’s voice echoed. Feeling a tad bit left out, Y/n stared up at the tree with her friends, Bendy stood up on the branch and looked down at Y/n, the two locking eyes, Bendy’s expression softened for a moment as he seemed to give an expression of guilt, but he only turned to continue climbing.

Y/n hardly noticed Ruck in the background watching, she soon rolled her shoulders before taking a big deep breath, filling her lungs with air, she exhaled softly before grabbing onto the branch and heaving herself up, once on the first branch she took a step back and hopped onto the tree, hands hands gripping the bark before pushing herself off the tree and landing onto the second branch that she had trouble getting to before, Y/n lets out a huff of relief and content, she hops up to the third branch and grabs ahold of it before heaving herself up, like she had saw Felix do not that long ago, she crawled onto the branch and wobbled for a moment but she kept a iron grip onto the branch.

Y/n stands up slowly, her heart beating frantically in her chest from adrenaline and fear of falling, she was up maybe 7 feet in the air only, she neared the tree and placed a hand on it as she stared down at the ground, Spunk’s head staring up at her as he barked and Y/n looks up at the next branch, the tree vibrated from all the moving.

“I can do this..” she said to herself before repeating the same action as before to get to the 4th branch, she reached a hand up to see a branch wasn’t there, but far in front of her. Y/n took a step back on the branch before she quickly ran off the branch and jumped to the next one, with a tad bit of air knocked from her stomach, she crawled on top of the branch and stood up she glanced back down to now see Ruck looking up, he nods his hair before sticking an arm out, giving her a thumbs up. Y/n felt her lips shiver before she smiled and she looked up to see Donald standing on a branch above her.

“Maybe we should call you sticky fingers.” He teased—referring to how quick Y/n caught on how to properly climb the tree.

“I can’t climb walls.” She reminds before Donald feigns sadness. “What a tragedy!” He laughs before Y/n laughs along and hops up and grabs onto the branch and pulls herself up.

“Mija! You are up! I am proud of you!” Panchito claps his hands, keeping perfect balance on the branch, Y/n smiled as she aimed her attention to the rooster and slowly edged over towards the edge of the branch and extended her arms to the branch he was standing on.

“Yeah, I managed to make it past the se-“ the branch snapped and Y/n fell off of it, Panchito gasps and quickly reaches down to try to catch Y/n, but was too late.

Y/n had quickly grabbed ahold of the long vine that was hanging, her hands tightly grasped onto it, her legs dangling in the air and it felt like her heart jumped to her throat.

Panchito stared down at Y/n in shock as she stared back up at him in shock as well, she looked like a baby koala holding onto the sturdy vine. Y/n glanced back down to see she was various feets from off the ground, if she fell from here—she was bound to break or lose something.

“Y/n!” Y/n looks over to see Bendy hopped down from the branch he originally was on to check on her.

“I’m fine!” She quickly says, her ankles wrapping around the vine she looks over to the branch that was close to her. She could make that, Y/n stared at the branch before she moved her body to rock back and forth, she felt like she was on a swing, if only she wasn’t hanging on for dear life.

“You—“ Felix quickly placed a hand on Mugman’s mouth to silence him. “Wait.” He tells him and Mugman remained quiet as Y/n moved a foot, the tip of her foot touched the branch, she pushed herself off of it, which sent her back then back forward, where she hopped off the vine and lands onto the branch, she stumbled slightly but remained on the branch and smiled to herself, she did it.

“Good job!” Oswald calls down from the branch above, Y/n looks up at him.

“Oh yeah, I can finally be like that Tarzan guy.” Cuphead states as he looks for the nearest vine which Mugman furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head.

“Cuphead don’t do that—“

“Oh! I will join as well!” Panchito hops off of the branch and grabs onto a vine with ease, Cuphead jumps as well his laugh echoing in the air as well as Panchito’s, Y/n smiled at the two before she hopped off the branch and grabbed onto the vine as well, the similar feeling from before when she had held the rope back at home was persistent, but this time she felt no fear, landing onto the next branch she jumps up and pulls herself up to the next branch, Cuphead lands on the branch as well as Panchito, the three had reached higher into the tree now looking down at, Mugman, Bendy, Oswald, Felix and Donald.

“I’m not doing that.” Donald blatantly says.

Once reaching the top of the three, the thick branches were almost like a bridge, walking amongst it Y/n hopped across a small gap, the serene environment brought a feeling of comfort to Y/n as she slowly stared out at the vast scenery of land and trees, the clouds were light—as if it were fog, she could see birds from afar flying, and some mountains in the background, the land reached far and wide.

The sun had been beginning to set, the gradient color of purple, orange and red mixed into the sky like cans of paint that had been dropped onto a canvas.

She turns around to see Mugman busy examining the same leaves as before in the ground. Cuphead standing beside him—and had already been looking at Y/n.

“Look at how big this place is.” Y/n calls out. Felix turns around once helping Donald up onto the platform.

“Yep, 1 million acres of land.” Felix answered. That was a lot—Y/n wasn’t entirely sure how much that actually would be, but from the sound of it, it sounded a lot.

Soon, Bendy, Oswald and Panchito crawled up, Oswald landed onto the ground and pants.

“God! That’s a climb! I don’t even want to think about what it’s like going back down.” Oswald sputtered. Panchito didn’t seem tired at all as he removed the debri of wood from his shirt and found interest in the new environment.

Y/n walked over to the edge of the platform and sat down, she peered down to see they were feet away from the ground, the area felt like a treehouse, she looked up at the sky to stare out at the nature, the wind blew in her ears, and she shivered at the cool air that now inhabited the area.

Looking over she spotted her friends seated next to her as they all stared off into the sun as well.

“I can easily push you.” Bendy leans to quietly tell Cuphead, who slowly blinked. Y/n heard Bendy before shoving her elbow into his side and he grunts and holds onto his side.

The group just enjoyed the rest of the night basked in the serene atmosphere.

Ruck, Meek and Don finally climbed up and spotted the group sitting and watching the sunset. Ruck nods in affirmation and Meek sets down the wood and blankets onto the ground.

“Kid, come here, let me show you how to make a fire.” Ruck calls out.

Mugman held the book open as he stared off at the trail, closing the book he looked back at everyone who had finished climbing down the tree, which was a headache to do mind you.

“Hey! The trail is working again.” He announced.

“It’s about time, I thought we’ll just be wandering around aimlessly.” Donald says before walking over to Mugman. Y/n places Spunk on the ground who hops up and down excitedly and Y/n fixes the straps to her book bag before walking over to Mugman.

“There’s no telling how far it’ll take us.” She said which Ruck decided to finally speak. “Then best to get a move on then.”

It was only an hour of walking and Y/n immediately felt tired, her legs felt like they were going to give out at any moment, but she had been too captivated by the wonders of the offlands, she had spotted a frog hopping around on a tree root on the ground, it was odd, certainly not anything she has seen before, it was purple and had green eyes—almost similar to a tree frog, and had two green antennas—like a moth would have, as she walked past it she kept her eyes on it as she was too taken back by the out of this world look.

The sound of water crashing hits her ears and the sudden gust of wind hitting her in the face, sprinkles of water hitting her forehead before she finally faced ahead to see an opening, out into an area filled with a vast amount of water, the sand sparkled under the sun, the ocean water creeping up to shore and shying away back into the sea, they were standing at the edge of a cliff—which seemed to have a way down by a man made staircase.

But the trail had gone left—away from the cool beach area, Meek had been talking about something but considering the guy was talking non stop, Y/n was too distracted with the stuff around her.

“This is gonna be a long walk..” Y/n heard Oswald mumble under his breath. Which she had to agree…yes this was going to be a long walk..cue the montage.

Y/n held Spunk above her head as she hopped from one rock to the other, the rocks were in a murky pond that they all had to cross, Spunk’s tail wagged as he curiously stared down at Y/n, the sound of a splash emits in the air and she looks up to see Donald had fell into the water, in which he quickly swims up in a panic, the lily pad on top of his head as he deadpans, Y/n held in a laugh as he crawled back onto a rock—when he heard her laugh he glanced at her before his foot jerked where she was, causing the human to lose balance and fall into the water as well, Spunk lands in Donald’s arms and the pup barks up at him before reaching up to lick at his face.

Sometime later Panchito had been curiously staring down at a squirrel—which had odd colors, it was brown of course, but it had stripes around its fur of a darker color, it curiously stared up at Panchito, Oswald stood next to Panchito and he slowly grimaced at the odd looking Squirrel.

“Ah, so cute.” Panchito cooed before he removed himself from the ground to go catch up with everyone, the moment he had said that the squirrel quickly moved back In a defensive stance and growled at Oswald, his ears slowly lowered and he sighed.

“Great..”

Oswald shouts as the squirrels jump onto his face and frantically scratch at him.

Later in the day Cuphead had been walking beside Bendy, talking about..lord knows what, Bendy’s express was neutral at first until Cuphead seemed to make a joke and laugh dramatically loud and nudged Bendy, Bendy’s expression slowly soured and he slowly stopped in walking and forcefully shoved Cuphead off to the side, which the cup landed into a body of water, a pond. Bendy slowly grinned and lets out a slow chuckle, Y/n turned around as she could basically feel in her bones what Bendy did, she furrowed her eyebrows at Bendy who was glaring at Cuphead with a mix of mischief had slowly turned his head to look at Y/n and his expression softened and he soon gave her a nervous smile.

Later on, Felix was teaching Y/n how to tie a monkey knot correctly, he held a half cut nylon rope in his hands as he carefully took Y/n through the steps on how to make the knot. When he glanced at her she had her index finger wedged between the tight knot, she flinched at let out a loud shout and quickly started to fling her hand around as if an animal latched itself onto her hand, Felix quickly moved to help her undo the knot.

Even later in the day, Mugman was busy throwing a stick for Spunk to go catch as they walked, the pup excitedly walked backwards as Mugman walked towards him with the stick, Mugman tossed the stick and smiled and Spunk shot away to quickly retrieve the stick, the stick fell into a pond and Mugman laughs before quickly changing his expression to that of fear before he dashed off to quickly catch Spunk before he could enter the water. Lucky for Spunk he had gotten distracted by a new stick that was at the edge of the pond and his tail wagged before he bowed his head down to pick the stick up, Mugman flew over his head and fell into the pond, the splashing of the water caused Spunk to quickly look up to see Mugman clutching onto the stick with a edging smile as he slowly trudged from the water, he was soaked head to toe in water.

Spunk tilts his head in confusion and Mugman lets out a heavy sigh of relief.

A few hours later, Y/n had grown tired, which led to Panchito carrying her on his back, the human had her head rested on top of his as she was sound as sleep, wrapped around Panchito’s back like a koala, the rooster was busy humming to a tune to himself as he carried the human. Ruck turned his head to see the human asleep and sighed before slowly shaking his head..what is he gonna do about this kid..

A few more hours passed and Y/n was jumping up to grab an apple from an apple tree she had spotted, she had grown a tad bit hungry from all the walking and wanted something to eat, she jumped up yet again and grabbed ahold of the apple and pulled it from its stem, once landing back onto the ground she glanced down at the Apple and took a bite from it with and continued walking as she caught up with the others Ruck glanced at the her and spotted her eating away at the apple before he looked ahead but soon looked back at her and furrowed his eyebrows.

Next thing Y/n knew she was crouched beside a tree, Felix gently patting her back as she regurgitated the last thing she had eaten—which was the apple. Ruck was in the background chastising her about not just picking up anything and putting it in her mouth—very similar to a father scolding a child for putting a bug in their mouth.

Felix had given Y/n a piggy back ride as vomiting over the place had taken some energy from her, while she was busy fast asleep on his back.

Thankfully it only took an hour for her to feel brand new and back to normal as the apple left her feeling sluggish for about 3 hours, but she was back to walking with Spunk beside Y/n.

And now, 9 hours into walking…the sun had set about an hour ago, and they decided it would be a good pit stop for a small rest. Y/n felt exhausted, from the energy she had used, it was amazing with how far she even made it.

At the moment Ruck was quizzing her how to make a fire as she gathered the stuff for it.

“What keeps the fire insulated?” He asks.

“Rocks.”

“What can you use to start a fire.”

“Paper, pine needles or dry grass.”

“Good job kid.”

Y/n sat down on the ground as she fixed the sticks and pine needles and soon placed the lit match into the pile—as she was making the fire, Spunk found a spot to lay down at, beside Y/n’s bag as he lets out a big yawn and laid his head down onto the ground. Panchito was busy examining a few rocks on the ground, it sparkled like a blanket of snow.

“Ah geez, my legs feel like sticks.” Mugman whines as he sat down onto the grass, everyone was pretty much exhausted, Panchito was already wrapped up in a blanket leaning on the log drifting off to sleep after leaving the rocks alone he was interested in not too long ago, Cuphead was sitting beside his brother—the air was chili and the fire actually worked wonders besides being a source of light in the dark. Y/n grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around her shoulder before leaning her back onto the log and feeling the warm heat against her skin. She was certain tomorrow morning would be even more walking.

Meek—oddly enough, just dropped down anywhere to fall asleep—which was a pile of leaves—from the short time she observed Meek, the guy had so much energy—he fell into a hole earlier in the day and crawled out of it like it was some sort of playground—he even taught her how to pop a bone back into its socket—by popping his index finger out of his socket. Which was cool she had to admit. Ruck really spent most of the day following the trail where it needed to be and Felix was telling everyone a few facts about their environment, like the animals—which there was a turtle with wings—some plants that could change colors all on their own..and of course..that damn dreaded apple tree.

Speaking of which, Felix sat down next to Y/n, holding a spoon with the dark liquid inside of if. She had to take it earlier ever since that Apple made her sick.

Y/n immediately grimaced and looked at Felix who gave her smile. “Yeah, I know, but you have to take it before bed.”

Earlier when she had to take it, she felt like she had to vomit all over again. “What’s it even for? I feel fine now.” Y/n moved her hands to cover her mouth.

“It’s a detox herb—it was made into a liquid, it’s called Wormwood, it helps stimulate the digestive system—“ he motioned towards her hand to move and Y/n hesitated before removing her hands from her mouth and opening her mouth as Felix placed the spoon in.

“And it can also kill any unwanted parasites like tapeworms and other stuff.”

As he spoke, Y/n swallowed the bitter taste and grimaced—it was like her body was fighting to not swallow the medication, but she soon did—forcefully.

“You’ll feel even better in the morning.” He says before placing a hand on her head and standing up to chasite Cuphead for trying to dig a hole—for whatever reason he needed to do that.

“So. What’s your plan with this uh..Pib guy.” Y/n heard Ruck’s voice beside her, she looked over at him to see he moved and was sitting on the log which she was leaning on. Y/n slowly looked away from in and back to the fire, her lips tightened and she furrowed her eyebrows ever so softly.

“…” she couldn’t really find an answer for that, she didn’t want to go anywhere near Pib.

“I don’t know.” She starts.

One thing Y/n couldn’t wrap her head around…was the fact that she stared death..right into its eyes that night.

“She almost killed me—like..5 times.” Y/n admits and Ruck slowly nods.

“So—if you knew Hector—wouldn’t that mean you two were like..born in the 30s?” That was the question that Y/n had been meaning to ask. With no disrespect, despite Ruck being 50 at this day and age, it didn’t entirely add up how he knew Hector—when she gathered that Hector was alive near the 30s—or maybe even the 40s.

“When that damn witch came and got me, Don and Meek, we've been stuck as cats for the last 60 or so years.”

Y/n let out a small laugh and Ruck slowly shook his head. “Hadn’t seen Hector since, he disappeared—but we just wrote him off as dead.”

“Was he a cool brother?”

“He annoys the hell out of me most of the time, but, what’s a sibling if they don’t do that?” Ruck chuckled at his statement as if he was reminiscing.

“He sure as hell got into a lot of trouble.” He glanced at Y/n who was staring up at Ruck, yearning for him to go on.

“No wonder where you got it from.” He jokes and Y/n gives him a large smile.

“The day Hector got that book, he made tons of friends, like you did. He never had much growin’ up because he was always working, sooner or later he ran into that book and he was off tryna fight the world with it.”

“Did he ever solve the problem?” Asks Y/n. And Ruck shook his head. “Nah. Like I said, vanished before he could. I'll tell ya’ the full story some time.”

Y/n grew silent as she moved to turn her gaze back to the fire. Earlier, Mugman had mentioned if Hector died trying to understand the book—what made them think they would be any different?

And she had to admit, Y/n was starting to dwell on that statement, more than what she wanted to.

“Alright, get some rest kid. You all gotta make it to where you need to be for tomorrow.” Ruck placed a hand on Y/n’s shoulder and stood up from the log and walked over to Don and Meek, nudging Meek with his foot to get out of the leaves, Y/n watdhed Ruck and the spark of curiosity only burned brighter, the need to know Hector and who he was.

Y/n looked over to see Bendy was laying down with the blanket wrapped around him—his back turned to her as he was sound asleep, she stood up and wandered over to him, before plotting down in front of him—where he tiredly opened his eyes and spotted Y/n moved to lay beside him. “You didn’t tell me you were going to sleep.” She tells him and Bendy lets out a tired laugh.

Laying down Y/n closed her eyes and soon drifted off to sleep.

Y/n was sitting on a bench as she stared down at the book in her hands—she wasn’t reading anything but rather staring down at the drawn picture on the yellow pages, several pictures—one being a hand with a white outline on its palm—it seemed to resemble a spiraling circle, and the other quick sketches seemed to resemble some anatomy chart, Y/n looks away from the book and into the empty streets—a white blanket of fog was present as the street was empty—empty with no life and no motion. The dark sky presents the white stars dotted on its dark canvas, as the moon was also a beacon of light alongside the streetlights. A sensation of familiarity overtook Y/n, as if she knew where she was—it felt like the benches she would sit down at back at home when waiting for the bus or just taking a gander to look around at a park.

Slowly closing the book, Y/n kept it on her lap as she glanced up at the stars, the street lamp above her flickered, the clicking sound of the light echoed in the air, she looked back to the ground to spot a figure standing in front of her a few feet away. It was Pib.

Y/n quickly stood up from the bench, the book falling from her lap and onto the ground, Y/n slowly backed away as she rounded the bench and stood behind it without moving an eye from Pib. Who didn’t even move from the spot she stood in.

Y/n hardly realized she dropped the book before her eyes quickly glanced at the ground to see it laid on the ground helplessly. Y/n’s hands gripped the bench tightly. Pib moves to slowly walk over to Y/n, in which the human quickly takes a step back from the bench, Y/n assumed Pib was moving to take the book that laid on the ground, but she stepped over it and moved her hands up to cover the holes where her eyes would be on the mask she wore, almost like she was moving to countdown during a game of hide and seek.

Y/n furrowed her eyebrows as she stared at Pib, who moved both her hands from the mask quickly to look at Y/n. ‘Peek-a-boo!’ Which caused Y/n to flinch back at the sudden motion—it was like any single muscle that moved Pib—caused Y/n to flee back even further.

Y/n’s lips slowly yet shakily turned into a frown..Jesus that thing was odd..

Pib then did it again—as if waiting for Y/n to do it, she moved her hands to cover her eyes back up but stopped in motion when Y/n moved her hands to do the same thing, Y/n raised her hands to her eyes to cover them but stopped and stared at Pib—almost suspiciously. Pib stared at Y/n as if waiting for her to close her eyes—but Y/n didn’t budge, Pib covered her eyes first as if sensing Y/n’s anticipation and Y/n did the same exact thing. The darkness covered her eyes but she quickly uncovered her eyes in spite of fear and anxiety. Pib quickly ripped her hands away from her eyes, stopping in the same motion as the human.

Y/n placed her hands to her side and Pib did the same.

That caused the human to fall into a heavy silence as she stared at Pib, who stared back at her. Y/n moved her left arm over and Pib did the same exact thing, wiggling her fingers Pib replicated the same action.

Y/n placed her left arm down and lifted her right arm up, Pib followed Y/n’s actions.

Y/n placed her right arm down and took a step back, which caused Pib to take a step back—she replicated her moves so smoothly and without a hitch it was like Y/n was looking into a mirror.

Staring at Pib with a perplexed, and anguished expression, Y/n then moved her hands up to her face—as if she was removing something from her face. Which in this case a tactic to maybe remove the mask from Pib’s face, Pib hands followed Y/n’s movement, the tips of her fingers grabbing onto the mask, as Y/n lifted up but Pib remained still, which caused Y/n to remove her hands from her face as Pib seemed frozen into place before her arms slowly lowered back to her side—it reminded Y/n of a machine losing power and going back to its default pose—which caused a small wave of panic to bubble in Y/n’s stomach. A boiling pot of anxiety and fear as Pib’s intimidating stature towered over hers, she was so close yet so far away.

Pib’s shoes grazed the ground as she slowly sauntered closer to Y/n, and it wasn’t until then did Y/n take notice of how intimidating Pib was—sure it was already noticeable with her earlier interactions with the person—but she hardly took notice of the details on Pib, considering Y/n was busy running for her life. Something she thought Pib was after. Pib didn’t seem interested in the book, yet Pib wanted to..kill her.

Y/n’s eyes gazed upon Pib, who stopped in front of her. Pib had to be a foot or two taller than Y/n—She couldn’t tell how tall but the height difference was noticeable, reaching around Pib’s shoulder just under their chin. Y/n looked at the dark polo neck sweater—woven with black wool, the off-white mask with little to no detail—the boots.

“What do you want from me.” Y/n’s statement came out more harsh than what she meant it to be, but she feared Pib and couldn’t control her nerves, Pib gently leaned back as if Y/n’s statement had hurt them in some way, which Y/n almost fell for, despite Pib not speaking their motions seemed genuine.

“What do you want..” Y/n repeat—finding the courage in her. Pib stared at Y/n before quickly placing a hand on her chest and stumbled, her body convulsing ever so slightly as if she couldn’t breathe, replicating like they were having a heart attack, Y/n flinched at jumped back at that action, like a frightened cat, her back hit the street lamp and a muffled strained sound came from behind the mask, Pib’s legs slowly giving out on her, the strained gagging noise was enough to send Y/n fleeing away but she didn’t know where to go, the sudden feeling of familiarity has fled away long ago when Pib appeared, her surroundings was no more than an area she had no clue of its origin nor did she care to find out, it was also a reminder that running away from Pib would do you no good, her mind could remember no matter how far and fast she ran—Pib was right there—tackling her back down—not tired at all.

The nipping harsh feeling of frozen cold air wisps past Y/n, causing her to hug herself, as if shielding herself away from the cold and harmful things the world threw her way, her hair blowing in the now harsh wind, Y/n’s eyes glossed up as the bubbles of clear tears slowly fell from her eyes as Pib straightened her posture and looked at Y/n—stopping the dramatic act she started and in the blink of an eye, Pib launched towards Y/n’s neck, their hands grabbing ahold and squeezing tightly, it felt real, the cold iron grip on her neck was strong, Y/n grabbed Pib’s wrist and tugged and pulled and pinched but that didn’t stun nor bother Pib, Y/n struggled, she really did. The lack of oxygen got to her—and the air grew colder and colder, her vision becoming blurry and darker as Pib moved back, walking Y/n back to the lamp post and pressing her back against it firmly.

Y/n’s strained voice was muffled in her ears—but Pib could hear. It was like no matter how hard Y/n moved and tried to push herself from the lamp to push Pib away, Pib was too—far too strong to move away. Y/n’s hand at first went to grab ahold of Pib’s sweater, her fingers clutching the fabric of the sweater but no energy was enough to do much of anything.

Y/n couldn’t see Pib’s face, but not only did she feel fear, but she felt a strong sense of disdain, loath, the way Pib had positioned to push Y/n down as she held a grip on the humans neck with such strength, shoulders tensed up to where Pib’s ears would be, and the sound of unnatural bellowing from behind the mask stunned Y/n as she pathetically let out a fearful and weak whisper.

“Please..” Y/n whispered, her tears landing on Pib’s hands, her wet face felt cold in the crisp cold air that felt like it was ready to just freeze her to death.

Y/n’s hands slowly moved away from Pib’s face, the humans eyes slowly closing—her world becoming blurry, Pib’s hands grew shaky around Y/n’s neck before they quickly let go as if the human had burnt their hands—as if an animal had tried to bite their hand off, Y/n fell to the ground as Pib stood above her.

Y/n’s eyes slowly closed.

Y/n’s chest jolted as she flinched and quickly opened her eyes, inhaling a shaky breath—gulping in air like a fish out of water. Y/n’s hands dig into the ground by her sides—but she was met with something cold, she quickly sat up and looked down to see a thin blanket of snow.

Though Y/n was sweating, the cool air made her shiver, placing a hand to her chest to feel her mad thumping heart and then to her neck—she could still feel the phantom touch of Pib’s hands. Y/n didn’t care to worry about the random change in weather. She died..or she felt like she did. The dream felt all too real, she was certain—she thought it was reality, the thin slimmer of glee was there, she was alive..Pib didn’t kill her. But that overtaking sense of worry and inner turmoil spoke to her…it felt like death..and most importantly. Pib can kill you. A being with great power and strength. And here Y/n was—with a book and hope.

Y/n placed a hand on her lap, her heart hadn’t stopped beating and she hardly noticed as she stared at the rock ahead of her—focused on it as Y/n weakly tried to remove the blanket from her legs.

“Y/n?”

Y/n felt a hand on her shoulder—she quickly flinched away at the sudden gesture and looked to her side to see Panchito who quickly removed a hand from her and gave her a nervous smile.

“Ah, sorry, I did not mean to frighten you.” He quickly apologized. Seeing Panchito brought her at ease, blinking, she let out a small sigh of relief from what it seemed and Panchito observed her for a moment as she stared at him.

“Oh…what is wrong? Are you sick again? Are you hungry?” He names off various things—it was clear he could tell something was wrong with the human. But he couldn’t tell what it was. Y/n slowly stood up from the ground, the blanket falling from her before she took Panchito’s arms.

“I had the worst dream ever..that—the—the—Pib was there and then she tried to kill me, and it felt real—I thought it was real—because I felt like I was dying—I was dying and..” Y/n placed a hand on her head and took a breath and exhaled as Panchito slowly nodded his head at her explanation.

Y/n’s lip wobbled and she felt her throat tightened as she let out a sigh. “I’m..scared.” She confessed. She didn’t know what was wrong—up until she said it. She was scared.

Y/n looks away from Panchito and to a tree where her brain slowed down to take a step back and think..to take in the overall picture of…everything.

Y/n opened her mouth to speak, her arms hugged and tightened its grip around Panchito’s arm when he turned to see whatever she was looking at—which was just the tree.

“I..am..afraid…that…” she thought for a moment, but her brain couldn’t piece it together. “I’m afraid of Pib..”

“It..is okay to feel fear.” Y/n looks at Panchito when he starts to speak.

“My padre used to tell me, without fear, there is no courage, fear is..in a sense..what drives us to either..run from it..or face it, do not be ashamed because you are afraid of something.” Panchito places a hand on Y/n’s head.

“I can understand—a minor set back when you start to think—this is..how do you say..odd?” He questioned his definition and Y/n slowly nodded as he continued.

“Odd that—something so delightful—like traveling across the seas to see such a wonderful world that no one has really discovered—“ he motions towards everyone laying in the snow infested ground sound asleep.

“To meeting new friends along the way.” He looks back at Y/n.

“But when you look on that other side of the wall—every story has scary moments—which is the real problem, running from people who are out to get you, and though it may sound scary, it is something you can either face or shy away from until death comes to you. But I know you won’t let that happen—we certainly will not let it happen.”

Y/n slowly nods—a weight being lifted from her shoulders—from the reassurance and comfort that Panchito had brought her.

“It will probably take you more than one talk—but I am certain you will understand.” Panchito placed a finger on the tip of Y/n’s nose and she gave him a smile. Though his words brought her comfort and a tad bit of courage, the lingering thought in her head had been a constant ring—like a bell.

The sound of sneezing reached their ears and the two looked over to see Oswald had sat up and frantically rubbed his nose.

“Jeez..what..the hell is going on.” Oswald grumbled as he sat up from the ground, Y/n finally looked up to see the trees were covered in snow—how the hell didn’t they come down with hypothermia was beyond Y/n but she was actually glad that didn’t happen.

A pile of snow near the log moved and Spunk’s head popped out from under the blanket of snow. The pups tired expression was seen at first before he shook his head and stood up, the rest of the snow flying off of him—which landed on Felix in the process, which caused him to wake up and furrowed his eyebrows, his eyes landed on the snow infested area.

And from the look of it, Felix was just as confused as them.

“Well, Atleast we get a break from the heat.” Panchito tells Y/n who then nods. Yeah, for several hours it was unbearably hot, mostly because of the constant walking and—the apple incident.

“Is this normal?” Y/n asks Felix when he had stood up to tiredly dust the snow from his clothing, his ears flickered over to Y/n when he heard her.

“Not entirely.” He answered before looking at Y/n.

“I’m surprised the cold didn’t wake us up—it probably happened a few minutes before sunrise.” He brings up—which did have Y/n think that was a lot of snow just for it to still be morning if the sun just risen—then again—Y/n couldn’t actually tell what time it was—in fact she hadn’t touched her phone since they left town—even then she was certain there was a different time zone than what it is back at home. Y/n moved her gaze over to the snow and gazed at it as she heard the others speak in the background and she was certain the others were starting to wake up as well.

Y/n felt something nudge her leg—and when she glanced down she spotted Spunk, who had pressed his nose against Y/n’s leg before looking up at her, Y/n smiled before squatting down and gently patting Spunk’s—oddly warm head—did he have a heater or something? Y/n picked up the pup and held him to her chest, in which he laid his head in the crook of her neck, the warmth hitting against her cool skin as she gently let Spunk’s back who had closed his eyes.

Treading through the snow was actually quite fun, despite not having the clothing needed for it—the temperature was oddly soothing—it wasn’t an unnatural skin eating cold, it was..well clearly still cold—but not to the point where the human felt like she needed a coat.

Spunk was hopping up and down as he dived into the snow headfirst each time—something to distract him with. Cuphead—as always—was trying to make a snow fight with Mugman—which he didn’t want to play as he was still busy reading the book—Mugman was really a bookworm, if he wasn’t reading he was silently walking alongside with Cuphead, he didn’t seem to be like the one up for conversation as much as his brother was, Cuphead would just wander up to just about anyone to speak to them. He seemed to also have a knack for bothering Bendy—and she was certain Bendy would toss Cuphead off a nearest cliff if he could find one.

Ruck as always was a few ways ahead walking down the path that trail led—which thankfully came back. Y/n was walking beside Oswald and Donald—which Donald seemed to be half asleep as he walked. Y/n silently gazed down at Donald’s webbed feet—he was actually one of the only toons that didn’t wear shoes—not that it was a bad thing or anything. Meek seemed to take his shoes off a few minutes ago for whatever reason—the guy was weird but cool.

“Your feet aren't cold?” Y/n asks and Donald slowly opens his eyes and looks at the human before shaking his head—already knowing she was referring to his feet. “No.”

“He throws a tantrum when he wears shoes.” Oswald pipes up and Y/n lets out an airy laugh and Donald shrugs—which he didn’t deny Oswald’s statement.

“This cold is making me sleepy.” Donald drawled before glancing at Panchito who was busy balling something up in his hands—which was a pile of snow.

“Oh I have the perfect remedy for that.” Panchito quickly says and Donald quickly perked up. “Don’t—nevermind I’m up!”

When Panchito raised his hand to toss the snowball at Donald—he stopped in motion when a voice in the air echoed.

“Help!”

Everyone slowly stopped walking when they heard the voice some distance away. Spunk ears perked up as he titled his head from side to side in an attempt to try to pinpoint where the echoing voice was coming from.

“Help me! Is anyone there!” The voice echoed now that everyone was still and the snow crunching under their feet was at a halt.

“Well I be damned.” Ruck grumbled and Mugman looked at him. “Who is it?” He asks.

“Hell if I know.” Ruck glanced up at the trees as if the suspecting person would be there.

“It’s comin’ from over there.” Bendy motions his hand to the right where the path split off.

“How can you tell?” Don asks and Bendy was silent for a moment. “Good hearin, it’s healthy for you.”

“Well we can’t just leave them asking for help, we hafta’ help them!” Mugman worried, he slowly closed the book in his palms and glanced at everyone.

“Well..it wouldn’t hurt to at least drop by.” Oswald agrees and Y/n did as well, they couldn’t just leave anyone shouting for help—she just hoped it was someone needing help opening their mayo jar or something of the matter.

“Well. Let’s go.” Felix walks down the path that Bendy motioned down before and everyone followed—Ruck smacked the back of Meek’s head when he spotted the man trying to tear an ice sickle off a tree branch to lick it.

“Help…” the voice croaks in the cool air. Stuck by the thread of the collar of their dress—was a young woman—hanging helpless on the branch, it creaked under her weight as she just hung there helplessly. Cold to the bone—she shivered as she frowned and slowly closed her eyes—losing hope from what it seemed. She shakily brought her hands up to her arms to try to block away the cold that seemed to be aggravating her bare arms, oh she just wanted to go home! This was such a stupid idea.

Her gaze quickly looked up to the bush ahead of her that was shaking, slowly lifting her feet up to hall herself up—she heard voices echoing out into the air.

“And the next time you take something from a tree Y/n—I swear I’ll have you down to the ground giving me 40.” A gruff voice scolds out.

“Whatever you say..”

“Watch the tail!” Shouts another voice and soon a hushed apology coming from someone else. It sounded like a decently sized group. Soon—someone fell out of the bush and onto the ground. The girl flinched and her eyes widened when she spotted a toon then seemed to resemble an imp. He grimaced and soon pushed himself off of the ground—but his tail got stuck on a logs nubbed branch—causing a short hiss and scoff like noise to quickly shoot from his mouth, he turns around and placed a hand on his lower back and soon quickly cradled the tip of his tail.

His hard gaze soon moved up to the tree and spotted the girl hanging there.

“Thank goodness!” The girl shouts in glee and Bendy looks at her in confusion as to why she was just hanging there by her dress—in a tree…in the middle of the woods…almost around 30 degrees—but hey—this isn't the only weird thing he’s seen all week.

“Uh..sure.” Bendy’s statement came off more as awkward than anything. He noticed the girl stopped talking and stared at Bendy with wide sparkling eyes of—admiration, joy, awe? Bendy was certain he could quite literally see stars sparkling in those eyes of hers.

A flush cherry red complexion rises to the bridge of the stranger's nose as she clutches her hands together.

Bendy ignored it and walked over to the tree before climbing onto it—once reaching the branch he leaned over and grabbed the collar of the girls shirt before sliding her off the branch—holding her like a bag of some sort and with his free hand still clutching into the bark of the tree, he slowly slide down the trunk and lands onto the ground before placing the girl down.

The girl quickly turns around and looks at Bendy—who was talking—but whatever he was telling her was going through one ear and out the other, yes! This was just what she was waiting for! This very moment! Her moment!

“Lucy!” She shouts which causes Bendy to immediately stop walking and move his eyes to Lucy who seemed just about ready to fall to the ground, Bendy slowly nods his head. “Lucy..alright. Well, nice ta’ know. Well, I’ll be on my way.”

“Who’s the chick?” Lucy turns around to see Cuphead. Who raised an eyebrow at the girl who was smiling ear to ear.

“The gal who was cryin’ help, we can head back to the trail now.” Bendy walks past the two but Lucy quickly latched onto his arm—causing him to stumble and stop in his tracks—quickly looking at Lucy to see she was hugging his arm harshly—her eyes closed in content and Cuphead slowly blinks as he silently stared at the two before doubling over with a windy wheeze and letting out a howl before laughing. Bendy’s confused expression soon soured before he softly shoved Lucy off of his arm and brushed his arm as if it were contaminated by some creature with a thousand diseases.

“Alright, hands to yourself hotshot, I ain’t some playboy.” Bendy grumbled and Lucy only smiled at him with that lovesick expression, Cuphead laughing grew stronger and soon Lucy latched herself back onto Bendy’s arm.

“It was just like my father told me! The man of my dreams would come to me! Saving me!” She cried out and Bendy stared down at her and sneered before a voice quickly caught his attention.

“What..?” He looks over to see Y/n standing beside Cuphead, everyone now finally standing behind her as they just were as confused as her. Y/n’s eyes sliding over to Lucy who noticed the ground and she smiled and gave them a small wave—clearly not letting go of Bendy any time soon. Bendy couldn’t entirely read what expression Y/n made, she seemed confused just as he was.

“Look—she just started thinkin’ I’m some knight and shiny armor. I saved her from the tree.” He quickly explained and Cuphead laughed soon ceased as he placed hand on his head to calm himself down.

“Geez, that’s a sight to see right there!” He adds.

“Look, let’s just hurry and make tracks so I can get away from this bimbo.” Bendy shook his arm and Lucy surprisingly let go—but not because he moved his arm—but because of his statement towards her as he walked past Cuphead and Y/n—the two looked away from Bendy and to Lucy when they heard sniffing coming from her.

Her eyes were glazed over as she placed a hand on her heart, her bottom lip wobbled as a tear slowly left her eye. “But…you don’t…you don’t mean that..” she whispered and Bendy turned to look at her with a careless expression, his eyes flickered up and down and form.

“I’m sorry—I—really I am!”

Y/n felt like Lucy would be one of those people that would use tears to fake something they truly wanted—but, she truly seemed upset, like something was ripped right from her. Her eyes held a genuine expression of hurt and disdain.

“My father..I was supposed to get an arranged marriage with another man—but..I didn’t want that—“

“Geez…she’s gonna tell her sob story.” Y/n felt Cuphead mutter to her—which she couldn’t lie it was funny, a muffled laugh erupts from Y/n’s throat, Ruck stepped up and flicked the both of their necks—Y/n flinched and quickly stopped laughing as Cuphead stops laughing and grumbled before rubbing the back of his neck.

“I was told if I could..bring someone home—I wouldn’t have to marry him.” Lucy held her hands together.

“You all seem like very fine people! I bet Welkin would be a very nice place for you all to visit! You must be travelers!” Her voice edged as if her words weren’t reaching them. Felix’s eats quickly perked up at the mention of the town.

“Welkin?” He repeats and Lucy looks at him before nodding.

“Yes! Welkin—just a few hundred yards from here.”

Felix’s sharp eyes quickly glanced over to Bendy—who seemed ready to scurry away like some animal.

“Just—a moment. I need to speak with..my friends.” Felix tells Lucy who slowly nods as she takes a small step back.

“And I thought this idiot had no brains.” Don nudged Meek who shrugged with a short laugh.

“I agree, she seems..” Donald quickly glanced at Lucy—who was looking away—giving them privacy as they asked. She was still hugging herself from the cold—despite Y/n and the others not wearing the right clothing for the weather—their traveling clothes was still enough to at least block out the cold to some degree.

“Welkin is home to a man named Modi, he used to travel himself.” Felix brings up. And Oswald gives him a questioning expression.

“What does that have to do with us?” He asks.

“He might know something about Ruby Falls.”

Ruck seems to nod slowly at Felix’s statement. “There could be the possibility—it’ll probably help you all in the long run.”

“We could always ask her.” Mugman glanced at Lucy—clearly referring to her, and Felix’s eyes slowly moved to Bendy, who looked at him and furrowed his eyebrows.

“Not happenin.”

“Oh come on, she seems to have an eye out for you. Besides, we have to find some shelter. If we walk in this weather any longer, we’ll be freezing corpses in the next 9 hours.” Felix really did have a way with persuading people. But with Bendy—it was hard to read his expression, but Y/n could tell he wasn’t buying it.

“Then we can just go to Welkin on our own accord.” Bendy brings to the table, yeah he wasn’t budging but Felix seemed to have just the response for that, almost like he knew Bendy’s response.

“But we can’t, it’s a closed off kingdom—we go there, they’ll have us executed right in the heart of the town.” Felix placed a claw on Bendy’s chest and tapped it as it referred to the heart of the town. Felix’s voice was low and persuasive like a teacher speaking to a student to stop talking in class so they could pass.

Which would have been funny if Y/n wasn’t worried about the execution part.

“You and her are the ticket there. And the ticket to speak to the king.”

Bendy was silent for a moment as he slowly inhaled and sighed. “…”

“Or.” Felix straightened his posture and looked off yonder where the unknown was. “We could continue walking around in the cold and possibly not find much of anything—when was the last time the book gave us a trail to follow?”

“6 hours ago, we’ve been wandering around.” Donald answered—of course he would know exactly when the book was off and on as he was mainly the one complaining about it.

“All you gotta do is follow along with the girl and we can find out about Ruby Falls, you do the easy work, we’ll do the hard work.” Was Felix’s last statement and Bendy deadpans before sighing slowly, in his head he truly had the hard work to deal with Lucy as the others would spend time gathering some intel, but Felix made some good points..

“Fine…” he spoke through his teeth.

Having Lucy lead them to Welkin was…a sight. She was latched onto Bendy’s arm with pure excitement and joy!

“Oh! You’ll love my father, I’m sure he’ll love you too! This’ll be the finest wedding of the century!” She exclaims in joy—this must have been something big for her—almost like she was speaking as if she were royalty….wait.

“So. She’s a Princess?” Y/n asks Felix who was busy holding Spunk who—shockingly grew tired of trudging through the snow, and Felix nods at her question. “Yes, which..means I hope Bendy won’t lose his temper, if anything happens to her I can’t guarantee we’ll even make it out with our skin to our body. Modi from what I’ve heard is a very respectful man, but when it comes to his people it’s something you shouldn’t really mess with, like messing with a lion's litter.”

That wouldn’t have made Y/n think twice if it weren’t Bendy. Bendy wasn’t..entirely intact with everyone’s emotions but his, that didn’t mean he was some soulless dimwit walking around—he was still wary of others—but he could only stretch the ‘caring’ for so long.

And from what it seemed—he was on the verge of just ripping Lucy off of his arm and scurrying away.

Bendy held his eyes closed and his eyebrows pushed together as Lucy continued on talking and when she looked at him to ask a question he slowly opened his eyes and nodded at whatever she asked him.

“I’d give him about an hour before he loses it.” Oswald bets and Donald seemed to throw in some money as well.

“I dunno, I think he can make a day at the least.” Donald jokes and the two snickered at that, Cuphead soon slid over as if he knew exactly what they were talking about.

“Takin’ bets? I bet 100 he’ll drop her by the end of the night, I’ll even throw in my straw.” Cuphead tosses in and Mugman furrowed his eyebrows from the background and shook his head.

“Guys, c’mon, Atleast have some faith.” He scolds in a disgusted tone. And Oswald slowly shrugs.

“I mean I guess, Bendy already seems like he’s fetching out.” Oswald looks back ahead to where the two had been walking. Looking ahead, Bendy seemed to be slowly pulling his arm away from Lucy’s grip. But that girl had an iron grip.

“Aww, how sweet.” Panchito cooes at the two.

“This is gonna be a long walk..” Donald points out and..Y/n actually agreed with him.

Lucy was just a fit of energy from it seemed, pointing out some snow covered flowers she said was her favorite, to even moving along to get to know everyone better. Y/n couldn’t lie, Lucy was a pretty decent person—aside from the love sick affectionate crush she had on Bendy. Ruck noticed how Y/n didn’t entirely seemed too interested in Lucy—from everyone else he’s seen her interact with, she was At Least present for the conversation, but everytime Lucy bounded her way to speak—which was only twice considering Lucy wouldn’t move away from Bendy’s side—but everytime she went over to Y/n to speak, Y/n didn’t seem to active in the conversation, aside from nodding her head at Lucy’s statement.

Which caused Ruck to chuckle at nature.

But they had exited the cold environment and entered the now warm area, the trail leading off to an open area where a wooden bridge sat and on the other side stood a town—in the background a large castle sat—it was a village.

“We’re home.” Lucy calls out. Two guards—who were geared to the teeth with silver armor stools on either side of the bridge's poles, once they spotted Lucy, she greeted them with a movement of her hand and they nodded their heads in unison before moving aside to let them onto the bridge.

Walking onto the bridge. Y/n looked over it to see a large river running far and wide—she spotted deers standing at the bottom of it, drinking from the river before scurrying off. Looking up at the clear blue skies. The birds spreading their wings and flying amongst the wonders of the world, Y/n was far too invested in nature, her eyes picking up the sound of the village a few feet away, the sound of the rushing water from below and the sound of birds chirping and singing their mid-day songs. She felt hands on her back, gently guiding her forward into the town, she looked over her shoulder to see Lucy had scurried behind her to guide her when the human had gotten distracted with their surroundings.

“Wonderful, my father is going to be ecstatic to see you all!” Lucy smiled as she made her way over to Bendy who moved his arm out to her to hold onto, which she did as the two continued down the path down the village.

Y/n took the time to take in Lucy’s detail—blonde curly hair that seemed to reach her shoulders—a pale complexion with freckles dotting along her nose and cheekbones, the dress she wore reached near her ankles—it was white and had a small pendant near her chest.

“I believe you all will take interest in my father as he used to travel when he was younger, I’m certain he has tons of stories to tell you all!” Lucy tells them, the civilians smiled at the face of Lucy as they waved at her in glee.

“Morning Princess Lucille!” Shouts a bread maker and Lucy bows her head in a respectful greeting before she glances at Bendy.

“These will be your people.” She tells him softly. Some children standing on the roof of a building hopped from the gap to the others as they tried to get a glance at the newcomers in town.

Bendy only glanced at everyone before looking ahead—he didn’t seem too fond of that idea and Lucy noticed before patting his chest gently. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing too scary.”

Spunk had moved to walk under Y/n’s legs once he noticed all of the civilians directing their gaze upon the group, Spunk looked left and right as if he were guarding Y/n—as best as he could atleast, not entirely intimidating, but still cute to see.

Walking upon another bridge that entered the castle towards the end of town, they were met with two guards standing on either side of a wooden door.

“Alas! I have found him!” Lucy placed a hand on Bendy’s back and the guards turned their gaze to him—he didn’t entirely seem like Royal—at all. With the brown pants and button up with the vest—it was clear he was a traveler rather than anything else.

“A traveler?” One guard asks and Lucy nods.

“These are warriors.” Lucy mentioned as she motions to everyone else behind her. Y/n quickly glanced at Oswald who was standing beside her—who also seemed just as confused. But the two didn’t say anything.

“Just like my father.” Lucy adds and the guards stepped aside the two of them pushing either side of the doors open and Lucy danced on her feet quickly and squealed before she quickly led everyone into the castle. A wide room—with columns as a red carpet the ground was marble. And the walls was a pale white color—royal banners hung on the walls in between then were lanterns that had a soft yellow glow, on the the red banners was a emblem of what it seemed to be to silhouettes standing side by side—it was odd considering most royal banners Y/n seen consisted of some animal—like lions or even mythical creatures. Or some other sort of symbol.

Ahead of them was a small platform with two thrones, standing in front of it speaking to someone—was a stout man—a white beard and slick hair, despite him being the king he didn’t wear a crown as Y/n so assumed every leader would—then again, she only knew fairy tail kings. He wore a tight red vest with a white undershirt, a light red silky sash across his chest, a livery collar around his neck with different gems m, he had different medals along the sash, as if counting the many achievements he had made.

Lucy bowed ever so slightly and smiled up at her father. “Father. I return home.” She says. The man stops talking to whoever he was and looks at his daughter—his frustrated expression turns to that of relief and joy.

“Luicille!” He exclaims as he walks down the three steps that led up to the throne. He stands in front of Lucy who had removed herself from Bendy, the man placed his hands on Lucy’s shoulders and scolds.

“Now, you know not to just wander off! You left at the altar.”

“But I found someone else!” Lucy looks over at Bendy, who took a small step back and slowly lifts a hand up to gently wave at the king.

“They are all wanderers, like you used to be!” Lucy was filled with excitement to banter off about her findings. Presenting them as if they were some prized possession of some kind.

“He saved me. They all did. I was being chased by a pack of wolves and climbed up a tree and got stuck there for the last 4 hours, until they found me!” Her voice edged as if she were whining to her father, knowing the actual reason why Lucy was up stuck in the tree was actually funny to hear.

“Please.” Lucy peers up at her father with big eyes, the man looked over to Bendy, who perked up slightly and his tail slowly moved between his legs.

“What’s your name?” He asks.

Bendy lets out a strained low laugh. “Uh..Bendy.”

The man was silent—he didn’t seem too interested in Bendy at all. Panchito cleared his throat rather dramatically from the background—a hint for Bendy to do something. Bendy glanced at Lucy before he gently took her arm.

“I wandered upon your daughter, me and my friends were traveling because we’re looking for an island—called Ruby Falls, that was until I met Lucy.” Bendy’s small act did cause a small laugh to escape Y/n’s mouth.

“She just caught my heart in a matter of seconds.” He let out a dreamy sigh and smiled at Lucy, in which she returned the same expression before Bendy looked at the man.

“If it’s okay with you, I would like to take her hand in marriage.” He ended, the man’s eyes traveled upon the group of travelers and he smiled.

“This is wonderful! A group of young people who are productive!” The man chuckled in a proud tone as he clasped his hand on Bendy’s shoulders.

“My son, I used to be a traveler myself. Exploring the world far and wide.” Of course he seemed like a dad telling his tale of woe and what he used to do when he was in his prime.

“And you all are just what we needed, travelers!”

“I’m sorry, uh—why us?” Mugman asks—Y/n was questioning the same thing—they weren’t some couriers—they were only here to figure out what Ruby Falls was—which it was evident that the king traveled when he was younger. Clearly.

“You see, this kingdom is the last empire there is here, which means—“ the king pulls away from Bendy and moves to motion towards the wall—which had renaissance painting—storytelling of what seemed to be war—two opposite sides fighting.

“Many other threats of this land come to take down what is ours. You all are travelers, surely you know what out there holds.”

What?

Y/n’s expression soon stirred into one of confusion.

“Call me Modi. And this is your home.” The man then looks between Bendy and Lucy. “We’ll start making arrangements. Follow me!” Modi turns to walk down a hall that was on the side of the room—it seemed there were multiple halls from what it seemed. Following after, Y/n looks at Felix.

“So. What does being a traveler mean to them?” She asks and Felix slowly lifts his shoulders up as if debating his explanation. “I’m not too sure on that part. I don’t particularly dwell on stepping foot on any empire’s. That’s someone’s domain that can get you into some trouble.”

“Well.” Donald starts and the two look at him. “My Uncle Scrooge told me outsiders particularly look at travelers as some warrior—because who else would know the land better than anyone else?”

Y/n had to think on that for a moment. That—made sense. Travelers know the ups and downs of what the land has to offer—and as biased as it was..King Modi was a traveler himself.

Walking into a hallway—the windows were big—letting in the nice sunlight in the long hall, a blue carpet under their feet leading them down.

“I myself am honored to have a traveler take my daughter's hand in marriage.” Modi was speaking about something, but Y/n wasn’t paying too much attention to it—her attention was quickly snatched away by the portrait on the wall sitting next to a closed wooden door. It was Hector.

She slowly stopped in her walk to gaze at the picture, he had a sash across his chest with several medals along it. Wearing a dark blue vest with golden linings—she could see the details on him other than looking at a black and white photo that Puck had given her.

He had dark silky hair and toned skin—much similar to Ruck. A thin mustache above his lip and a boyish smile—happy to be posing for the photo from what it seemed. Ruck noticed the photo too and stood next to Y/n as he glanced at her staring up at the photo in awe. She glanced at him and then back at the picture.

“Is that Hector?” She asks him—she knew it had to be—but she just wanted to make sure and Ruck slowly nods.

“Huh..looks like it is..” Ruck seemed to be curious as to what the photo was doing there—maybe Modi had it because Hector was an adventurer just like himself and wanted to have it on the wall like some idol. Modi noticed the two stopped and turned to look at them gazing upon the photo in which he smiled joyfully.

“Yes! That is Hector Vendolez L/n. One of the bravest voyagers I know.” Modi smiled as he clasped his hands together. “My grandfather knew him—and I met him when I was just a boy. He was a frequent here in town and I made him his own hall out of gratitude for the help he’s brought to our land.”

No wonder why Modi saw travelers as something like gods. “Well what do you know.” Donald edges as his eyes flickered over to Y/n—rocking back and forth on the balls of his heels.

“Well..” Felix starts and he walks over to Y/n and places his hands on her shoulders. “She’s his great granddaughter. In fact..we..would like to know if you could help us.”

Modi’s eyes flickered over to Y/n, who stood in front of Felix, Modi’s eyebrows slowly raised to the top of his head in shock.

“Well…I be..this is wonderful!” He lets out a joyful laugh before fully turning to Y/n. “Following in your old man’s foot steps I see.”

“In a way. We actually..” As Y/n spoke she took off her bookbag and unzipped it to reach inside and pulled out the book—in which Modi gave an even more surprised look.

“We were sent away from home to look for pieces of the heart to get to Ruby Falls and we just need 2 more pieces.” Y/n explained, Modi perks up at that statement—but he mostly seemed astonished that Y/n was holding the book in her hands.

“We’re still looking for those pieces but—we were curious if maybe you’d know something about it?” When Y/n finished her question Modi seemed ecstatic to reply.

“I have never been to Ruby Falls before, it’s a very dangerous island, it’s called the Forest of Sorrows.” Modi let out a soft sigh of reminiscent.

“No one ever truly enters Ruby Falls, because it’s a very dangerous island, plenty of travelers go there—but they meet an unfortunate death. That is how Hector had passed.”

So..he really did die. Well, Y/n didn’t know what to expect, it’s been hinted at for the last several days—but she suspected something different.

“He had that book once, and I believe it’s in very great hands. I myself am very honored to have you all here, from the new prince..” Modi looks at Bendy and then looks over to Y/n.

“To the descendent of a magnificent warrior.”

Modi had left with Lucy and Bendy to make some arrangements—and leaving off to the castle was actually a pretty good idea, the guards and mistresses and butlers of the castle treated them more than just guests. A maid had led them to a hall with a few doors—it were rooms and all Y/n could think of was sleep—as nice as the outside was and all it had to show—Y/n actually wanted to sleep in a bed more than anything.

“And this is the residence hall—there’s plenty of rooms to pick from.” The maid daintily motioned towards either side of the hall—Y/n had a sense of deja vu from this similar view when they were back at the church in town with the nuns—man she missed them already.

“You heard that kid.” Ruck’s voice entered Y/n’s ears and she looked away from the door she was about to open and over to the man.

“Hear what?” She repeats.

“You’re Hector’s blood. Word is out now, which means you’ll have people on your back.” He tells and Y/n snorts—almost as if she was brushing her shoulders.

“I mean I guess—word won’t get around that fast, we’re only here until we can find the next stone, who’s gonna know that qu-“

“Excuse me.” A voice cuts Y/n off and she looks behind her to see the maid and another worker of the castle standing beside her—he must have been the butler of some sort, standing next to the maid with his arms behind his back—almost rather nervously.

“We just wanted to maybe get this signed by you..” the maid removed her hand from her back to reveal a paper and a fountain pen. Y/n stared at the paper and then slowly turned to look at Ruck who only gave her an expression as of saying ‘I told you so’

Y/n turns back to the two as she takes the pen and then the paper before placing the paper on the door where she signs it—not entirely used to giving ‘autographs’ she signed it like how she would usually sign a signature on a paper, it was better than nothing. She hands the paper back to the maid who then takes it and smiles at Y/n almost enthusiastically.

“Thank you!”

The two left with the paper clutched in the maids hand and started a conversation as they had wandered off to continue the duties around the building. Y/n looks back at Ruck who looks back at Y/n—who then chuckled before pushing the door open for her.

“We’ll talk later, go explore the town or somethin’ I’ll keep you updated.”

He placed a hand on the back of Y/n’s head and gently pushed her into the room in which she trudged into the room and was met with the warm presence of her friends around the room—despite there being almost 4 other rooms it was like they all congregated into one room. Mugman was seated next to a window with a book in his hand that he found from the bookshelf, Donald had collapsed on the couch and seemed to have drifted off to sleep—which was no surprise as he mention about how tired he was an hour ago—sleep did seem pretty nice right about now.

“Donald wake up you sleepy head.” Oswald gently pushed Donald’s shoulder, which caused Donald to grumble and turn to face the couch—his back facing Oswald before he surely drifted off back to sleep. Oswald rolled his eyes—what did he expect—when Donald had his mind made up, that duck wouldn’t back down—even from the simplest of things, like sleep.

Y/n walked over to the bench that was near the window and sat down next to Mugman—who appeared to actually be skimming through the book rather than reading it.

“So—what arrangements are being made right now?” Y/n asks Felix, he was busy looking through his Fanny pack for something until he heard Y/n’s questions.

“Well, I would assume the wedding.” He answered. That made Y/n think, they had to return back to the mainlands within 8 days. Hopefully the wedding would be sometime soon, and not in another month as those took time to plan..well..in the mainlands that is. Being in an entirely different world would have a million different things than what she was used to.

“We are already on day 2 though, hopefully the wedding’ll be soon.” Panchito points out exactly what Y/n was thinking, and that statement made Felix smile.

“Actually. Time here is different from on the mainlands.”

“Like a time zone?” Oswald questioned.

“In a way, time moves a lot slower here in the offlands. Temporal paradox is what people might put it—me personally I wouldn’t exactly call it that. The 24 hour mark just hit when the sun rose this morning—“ Felix went on a tangent—naming off words Y/n couldn’t even understand herself, Donald—the savior—sat up and glanced over at Felix with his eyebrows furrowed.

“Geez, will you speak English.” He grumbled.

“2 days have passed here—but only 14 hours passed over in the mainlands.” Felix cuts to the chase.

“It’s 2PM.” Cuphead adds—of course Cuphead and Mugman would know the time, they were used to the time changes as they themselves were from the offlands. And that could also explain the sudden fatigue swings Y/n would get as they traveled.

But that was great—the days would be more lengthy and give them atleast some grace period.

“But still, let’s try not to dawdle around, we’re still on time watch. Find the pieces, go to the island and go home.” Felix brings up and then flickered his sharp gaze to Cuphead. “And stay out of trouble.”

Cuphead lets out a laugh. “Please! I’m the life of the party in this joint.”

“Oh you wish.” Oswald voiced and Cuphead took that as a ticket to start a debate—letting the two run each other dry in the background, Mugman’s eyes quickly flickered to Y/n, who had moved to place ther bookbag on the ground, watching Oswald and Cuphead debate who could do the best backflip off of cliff for some..odd reason—she always found herself viewing into their conversation, Donald grew tired of the shouting before slipped off of the couch and trudged out of the room

—more than likely to relocate to a more quiet environment.

“Fine then, we can go find a bar in town to arm wrestle, me—“ Cuphead points at his chest. “You.” And then at Oswald.

“And a couple uh’ glasses. How’s about it.” Cuphead juts his hand out to Oswald who then took Cuphead’s hand and shakes it—probably the worst thing anyone could do in Mugman’s opinion.

“Fine, you got yourself a deal, doesn't mean you can beat me.” Oswald playfully shoved Cuphead’s hand away—who was wreaking with confidence. Oswald moved and walked over to the door and opened it. “But I bet you 100 bucks I can beat you—“ he dashed off out of the room and Cuphead perked up at that and grumbled—clearly Oswald cut him to the quick, something he wasn’t expecting and trudged out of the room after Oswald and Felix looks at the door. “Well I guess I’ll be the chaperone.” He states, Y/n had gotten up and wandered over to a wardrobe near the window, opening it up she spotted what she was looking for, a blanket nearly folded and placed away with a few other blankets and a few spare pillows.

Picking up the blanket she unfolded it and wrapped it around her shoulders.

“I will join you, I want to see who will win.” Panchito skips over to the door and opens it as Felix walks over as well before glancing at Y/n and Mugman.

“I’ll stay back, I’m tired.” Y/n answered and Felix nods as Mugman slowly closed the book he was holding in his hands before looking at Felix.

“I’ll stay too. If I see Cuphead bent up, I might lose it.” Mugman states—Y/n didn’t know what that statement meant but clearly Mugman didn’t find it appealing and it was rather hilarious to see his facial expression. Felix nods.

“Well, we’ll be back!” With Felix and Panchito leaving, Y/n spotted Spunk laying on the foot of the bed fast asleep, which made sense from how quiet the pup had gotten.

Finally engulfed in the silent air—Y/n didn’t know how much she needed some alone time up until they all left the room. Not that she didn’t like her friend's presence, but with how active and busy the days have been, filled to the brim with nonsense and headaches and even more migraines..and poisonous apple trees clearly. But now, she gets to sit back and sleep. For however long her body may needed.

“You can sit next to me.” Mugman’s voice reached her ears and Y/n turned her gaze to see he was still seated on the bench, the book he was reading was now opened back up in his land, Y/n felt the corner of her mouth twitch up in a smile before she moved and sat down next to Mugman, tossing the blanket over his shoulder, Y/n brings her legs up to her chest as her eyes falls onto the many words in the book.

“What’s it about?” She asks. Mugman smiled as he scooted closer to Y/n to present the pages of the book. “About some elves trying to hide some bread from a giant.” As Mugman explained the book—it soon turned into him reading the story to not only to himself, but to Y/n as well.

Y/n had drifted off into a deep awaited slumber, being on a cushioned area with a warm blanket was more than enough to coax her into the deep sleep she had been yearning for the past several hours.

Y/n felt like she had been asleep for hours, which was great because she needed it, the door of the room had slowly opened, both Mugman and Y/n were fast asleep, the book was on Mugman’s lap facing down—he clearly drifted off to sleep whilst reading no doubt. Y/n had her back facing to Mugman’s shoulder as she leaned on him as if he were a pillow, her leg hanging off of the bench as her other leg was draped across the cushion and over the arm of the couch. Mugman had his arm wrapped around Y/n’s neck as he seemed to almost be slipping off the couch with his mouth wide open as he lets out a soft snore, Ruck stood in the doorway as he watched the two, he lets out a chuckle and shook his head at the uncomfortable positions the two were in.

The others soon piled into the room—in a fit of laughter, Cuphead almost tripped over his feet as he tried to dodge Oswald’s grasp of him trying to grab at his straw.

“You look nice, I don’t see why you’re upset.” Donald’s voice pipes up as he walked into the room, Bendy trudged in after, a sneer ridden on his face, he had on a pristine white vest—with a white undershirt, the vest he was wearing had a tail—that parted into two—a similar look of a penguin suit, over his right right shoulder he had a white satin cloth with a small golden pendent to keep it to his shoulder.

“Yeah, if you ask, I look like some damn royal pritsy school boy.” Bendy grumbled. Cuphead turns his head to Bendy and wraps an arm around his shoulder.

“Look, just listen! Yer the talk of the town, you gots women that’s already wantin’ to put a dime down for marriage, for you!” Cuphead lets out a howl before laughing. Bendy’s neutral expression soon turned into a deep sour frown before he bared his sharp teeth at Cuphead which caused the cup to quickly move away from Bendy’s form.

“Do I look like a joke to you?!” Bendy hisses.

“Oof, somebody’s angrrryyy.” Cuphead sings and Mugman stirred in his sleep, his eyes clenching closed as he sighs through his nose. “Cuphead, leave ‘em alone..” he garbled—even though Mugman was half asleep, it was like Mugman could sense whenever Cuphead was pissing someone off.

“Ah, cheer up Bendy, I think this would be a nice experience for you.” Felix says as he walks ahead of him and over to the bench Y/n and Mugman was fast asleep at, the feline had taken the book from Mugman’s lap and Bendy squinted his eyes and slightly tilted his head.

“What’s that supposed ta’ mean?” Bendy edged. Felix holds the book in his hand as she looks at Bendy before he lets out a strained chuckle and his eyes flicker off to the side and back to the demon.

“Oh you know..”

“You suck at talking to people.” Donald quips and quickly gets to the point. Bendy rolled his eyes.

“I don’t suck at talkin’ to people, I can talk to people just fine. I do that for a livin’, I talk, they respond, I give a smile, they faint, and move on, so-so. 50/50, who doesn't wanna talk to me?” He outstretched his arms to showcase himself.

“If I were a girl, I wouldn’t.” Oswald whispered loudly, and Panchito snorted.

“Ya’ know, I ain’t never been around toons for too long, you guys are pretty funny.” Meek was sitting at a stool near a small counter in the room as he and Don were busy observing the group bantering back and forth.

“Of course m’ funny…” Bendy grumbled sourly, Y/n had started to stir and awaken from her deep slumber, the amount of voices reached her ears in the room, when her eyes opened she focused in on the conversation as she sat up, Mugman’s arm slipping off of her as he soon stirred awake as well.

“So, when is the wedding?” Panchito asked and Bendy fumbled with the golden buttons along his vest. “2 days from now, I was glad to even get away from the broad for even 5 seconds.” Bendy’s pupils flickered over to the door and Panchito shrugs.

“Hmmmm…I dunno, I think she really really likes you.” As nonchalant at times Panchito was, his statement came off more as sarcastic, and Bendy slowly sneered before shaking his head.

“You’re doing good though, keep this up she may even want a family.” Meek adds onto the pile and Cuphead lets out another howl of laughter.

“What—“ Mugman opened his eyes and grumbled. “What is so funny!” When Mugman’s eyes landed on Bendy to see his outfit, Mugman sat up, Y/n almost falling over in the process but the human sat up and her eyes landed on Bendy as well.

“Oh wow! You look nice!” Mugman compliments, shooting Bendy a promising smile. Y/n felt her lips tug up in a smile before nodding in agreement.

“You kiddin’ the gals gonna come in here and start draggin’ him off. Get the last of Bendy, he’s gonna be as busy as some middle aged dad!” Cuphead says slyly and Y/n lets out a laugh.

“Alright. Real funny.” Bendy grits through his teeth and Y/n stood up from the bench before walking over to Bendy and the others—who were across the room still—aside from Ruck, Meek and Don who were sitting on the far left of the room at the counter, at times speaking to one another or just tuning into the conversation.

“So, I get to be the flower girl, right?” Y/n asks Bendy. Bendy gives her a half lidded expression that she couldn’t comprehend. “C’mom doll, let’s not joke like that..” his voice softened from his ticked off expression.

“We got more information in the last couple hours here, I’d say a wedding is just the thing we need.” Donald states and Oswald nods in agreement.

“Yeah, so hopefully—“ Oswald’s gaze looked over at Bendy who grimaced and then looked at Oswald. “Bendy doesn't give up his position that he’s in right now, and toss it away.”

“Not my fault—I would be a lot more easy goin’ if the gal didn’t hang onto me like some leech. She is a leech.” Bendy spoke about Lucy with so much disdain and dislike, his fingers spreading out as if he were strangling something in the air.

“It annoys me! She-she even took me into her room, I never saw so much pink before you woulda thought some unicorn came in and threw up all over the damn place!” Bendy’s shoulders tensed up and soon the door slammed open and there revealed Lucy who had. A bright smile on her face.

“There you are!” She squeals as she skips over to Bendy who turned to Lucy and gave her a forced smile.

Lucy pulls Bendy into a tight hug and pressed a firm kiss to his cheek, Bendy clenched his eyes closed at the firm kiss before Lucy pulled away with a loud ‘mwah!’

Bendy reached a hand up and rubbed at his cheek as he furrowed his eyebrows before looking at Lucy.

“I wanna take you to the courtyard! That’s where we’ll have the wedding, we get to practice our vows and even test some food out! Oh also that’s where we can pick out the flowers to give each other! I know the exact flower I want to give you, I hope you aren’t allergic to pollen.“ Lucy just kept running her mouth and to Y/n it was a miracle how she could keep talking without taking a single gulp of air, Y/n could have sworn she heard Ruck somewhere from the background say; ‘God Damn..’

“Deathly allergic.” Bendy muttered—it was clear that was a lie but then again he could actually be allergic to pollen—but Y/n was going to take the ladder that he wasn’t.

Lucy deflated slightly at that answer. “Ah man..well don’t worry! There’s tons of other flowers.”

Lucy then turns her eyes over to Y/n and her smile widens. Y/n’s eyes flickered off to the side before looking back at Lucy.

“And you! The town wants to see you! They’re quite happy to see the descendant of Vendolez.”

Well that was…not what Y/n was expecting. Y/n slowly nods her head. “Right..”

“But first, I do hope you all can make it around today to the tailor so you all can get your outfits.” Lucy announced—aside from the puppy crush she got on Bendy when she wasn’t suffocating him to date, she was half decent in the least.

“For the wedding?” Mugman asks.

“That, and your townsmanship uniform, my father already ordered for a tailor to get to work, you all are warriors, Welkin has been yearning to see their hero’s for years, not only for them, but for the world.”

“Welll..that’s nice to hear.” Donald rocked back and forth on his feet.

“We’ll be sure to visit the town today.” Felix tells Lucy who nods excitedly she then looks at Bendy who looks at her.

“Now, you and I have to finish arrangements for the ceremony!”

“Right behind ya..”

Y/n glanced up at the clear skies—the sun was closer to the ground—so it was safe to say it had to be somewhere near noon. Don and Meek had stayed behind at the castle to explore it and speak to some of the people who were helping put the wedding together.

And clearly Lucy and Bendy were off starting the arrangements. It seemed word got around town quickly as when Y/n passed some of the residents in town she heard them say something along the lines of ‘Prince’ referring to Bendy.

The people actually seemed to move out of Y/n’s way when she walked down the town—they didn’t move out of fear—but out of respect—some tipping their hats as a greeting and some excitedly waving at her which she returned the action back.

“This is weird.” Y/n said through her teeth to Felix, who had been walking beside her.

“Just new to you is all.” Felix answers as they walked down the path to where it would lead them to the markets and hopefully to the tailor store—getting that information from via the directional sign.

“Yeah, true, but I don’t look anything like some fighter, if anything, I’m the one that gets my ass kicked.” She says and she heard Felix laugh under his breath, which he clearly didn’t want her to hear as he turned his head to another direction.

“Well I’m certain to an extent you’ll learn a thing or two. You got your Uncle Ruck to help you out.”

The two glanced back over their shoulders—passed, Cuphead and Mugman who was behind them walking and passed Donald and Oswald who was talking and to Ruck who looked away from something he had been looking at.

Y/n looks at Felix and deadpans. “He made me do 40 pushups because I didn’t know why bears hibernate, told me to climb an almost 100 foot tree and if I fell, brush it off, told me to man up when I was sick because of the apple incident, and then made me do another 40 push ups because I was sleepy on the way here.” Y/n named off some things—as much as she was ecstatic to know she had an uncle, another piece of family aside from her mother and father, Ruck was…well. He didn’t exactly treat her like some niece.

But more so like some rookie military boy who needed to know their place in the ranks. Tough Love, as some would put it. You fall to the ground and scab your knee and expect Ruck to kiss your boo boo away? Better luck with some other guy, Ruck would just give you a sideways glance and tell you to suck it up and move on with your day, he didn’t seem to believe in holding hands until we all skip to the finish lines, no. It was hard work.

But he was a cool guy overall, he didn’t speak too much—unlike Meek who seemed to be a never ending radio of news to tell you.

“Ah..I see, you want me to hold your hand or something?” Felix jokes and laughs and Y/n rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

“I just—you know, you finally get to know some other family aside from your parents and the guy is just..I dunno how to put it. Not too welcoming?” Ruck wasn’t horrible, but he sure wasn’t what Y/n dreamed of having in an uncle.

She felt Felix place a hand on her head. “You barely gave him a chance, you’ve only been around him for a good day or two.” Despite the stubbornness of Y/n, she had to agree with Felix. She barely given a chance before ridding Ruck off.

Felix removed his hand from Y/n’s head and Y/n glanced at him—a thought had been ringing in the back of Y/n’s head for some time now, as the two confused on down the path Y/n looked ahead before speaking.

“What made you want to become an adventurer?” Y/n asks Felix.

Felix’s pupils expanded as he listened to Y/n ask the question, it was odd as Felix had a few noticeable features of a cat would—well he is a cat, clearly.

Felix smiled before his eyes flickered to Y/n. “Been traveling since I was young.”

“How old are you?” She asks.

“Just turned 20 about 3 weeks ago.”

“So you’ve been traveling ever since you were a child?”

“As long as I can remember.” Felix smiled at the open air—reminiscing the first time he stepped foot out of his comfort zone to explore the unknown.

“Like, when you were a baby?” Y/n adds on and Felix chuckles under his breath. “No, of course not when I was a kitten, chances of me surviving out in the world like that at that age would be nowhere near possible.”

Well yeah, that made sense, walking around when you can’t even tie your own shoes yet probably wouldn’t be the best of all ideas. Y/n walked beside Felix as the two stopped talking for just a moment before Felix spoke up again.

“Wasn’t always the biggest fan of the outside world, I used to be afraid to touch grass—I heard someone refer to it as ‘blades of grass’ and always assumed it was little green knives in the ground.” That memory was bright as day in Felix’s mind, throwing a tantrum as his mother would try to set in him the grass so they could have a picnic but the kitten at the time wouldn’t budge, thrashing around like some rabid animal until he was out of the grasps of his mother.

Y/n smiled at the statement as she looked at Felix. “Really?

“Really. In fact..” he gave Y/n a sideways glance.

“I also used to be afraid to climb trees, I felt like if I climbed them I would be stuck up there forever.”

A small laugh emitted from Y/n and Felix laughed as well.

“But, got a little push—a few bruises here and there, and next thing you know, I’m voyaging out in the world, coasting the lands—and meeting different people all over the world.” A warm smile shivered its way onto Felix’s face.

“You don’t ever get lonely just traveling by yourself—I dunno, I guess it’ll be sorta relaxing to travel by myself now thinking about it.” On cue Y/n glanced over her shoulder to Cuphead and Mugman, Cuphead had his arm wrapped around Mugman’s neck—in a tight lock, Mugman let out a frustrated shout and shoves Cuphead away who let out a laugh at his brothers whining. Panchito had finally made his way back around and was busy trying to hop onto Donald’s back, who almost fell onto the ground and falling into Oswald in the process.

“I do.”

Y/n looks back at Felix who had looked away from Cuphead and Mugman as well. “I lost my mother when I was 12, my father had died a few months prior to me being born, so I spent those 12 years with my mother.” He lifts a hand up to his chest and pats at the pockets inside of his jacket, pulling out a photo, he lowered it so Y/n could see, Y/n looks down at the photo to see a small kitten holding onto a teddy bear that was scarred and looked ready to turn to dust, it was Felix, he wore a orange shirt and gray shorts, sitting in the grass was his mother, kneeling on her knees next to Felix smiling at the camera, Felix was smiling as well.

“She always wanted to travel the world, so I did it for her.”

“So that’s why you travel?”

“Mmhmm.” Felix confirms as he folded the photo back up and placed it back inside his jacket pocket.

“And I wouldn’t have it any other way, spending it with you all.” Felix places a hand on Y/n’s head and a smile edged onto her lips.

“Ever since running into you guys, you guys are like a family to me in sorts.” Felix seemed proud to state that, and Y/n felt a warm feeling in her chest, from someone who grew up with no family, to losing a mother to having to to be out in the world by himself must have been rough, but finally finding a place where people were there for eachother, had to be something genuine and new.

“I discovered a lot of things Y/n, but discovering this circle we have, is the best thing yet.”

#toon quest #bendy and the ink machine #cuphead x reader #bendyxreader #felix the cat #panchito pistoles #oswald the lucky rabbit

17 notes · View notes